Proud to Be Junior! -- 11th Grade Class Forum -- Pan American School of Bahia

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Please read pp.420-442 in Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States "A People's War?"

Take notes and answer the following questions for discussion:

End of WWII / beginning of the Cold War

Questions to answer:

1. What does Howard Zinn mean by the statement that “A few voices continued to insist that the real war was inside each nation” (p.420)? What was the “real war” that existed within the United States?2. What credence do you give to the belief that the US was eager to drop the atomic bomb in order to prevent the Russians from entering the war with Japan? Why was it so important to Harry Truman that Stalin not be allowed to enter the war?3. Why do you think the Korean War is often called “the forgotten war”?4. What did it mean to be “soft on Communism” in the 1950s? How did the fear of being so perceived influence politics at the federal level? What happened to those who were willing to take such a risk? Did anyone in power choose to do so? Why or why not?5. Why do you think Congress supported HUAC for such a long period of time? Why was there so little opposition to HUAC’s?6. What were the political and economic motives of the Marshall Plan?7. The president of General Motors was so happy about the wartime economy that he suggested a continuing alliance between business and the military for a "permanent wartime economy". So how does the atmosphere of crisis and cold war and the supposed "missile gap" lead to an ever-increasing military industrial complex?